No Sweets When Striking the Cookie Factory

There were no Christmas cookies for Alonso Gomez this year. Instead, he was back outside the cookie factory where he has worked for 20 years, striking with 134 of his colleagues.

Mr. Gomez has been going to the same corner every day for more than four months, protesting what he said were efforts by the owners of the Stella D’Oro Biscuit Factory to cut wages, pensions and holiday and vacation time.

This week, under the rumbling of the elevated No. 1 train at 238th Street and Broadway, they repeated the refrain they have been chanting since they walked out on Aug. 13: “No contract, no cookies.”

On bitterly cold days, the workers dance or take turns warming up in an idling car. For the holidays, they sang Christmas songs and hanged a wreath on a fence on the sidewalk.

As replacement workers came and went on Tuesday, about a dozen strikers shouted “Scab!”

Behind them, the green, white and red company flag flew above the factory, at 184 West 237th Street in the Kingsbridge section of the Bronx.

Well before the Magnolia Bakery drew crowds of high-heeled young women to Bleecker Street in Greenwich Village, Stella D’Oro cookies were a significant part of New York baking.

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Anabel Garita, holding the sign, said changes at Stella DOro would keep her from studying and would cut her pay of $18 an hour.Credit
Hiroko Masuike for The New York Times

The company was born in 1932 when Joseph Kresivich, a native of Trieste, Italy, began using Italian baking methods to make cookies, biscuits, biscotti and breadsticks.

For years, the company was family owned, as was a restaurant next door, which eventually closed.

In 1992, Nabisco acquired the company, and in 2000, Nabisco was bought by Kraft.

While Italian baking inspired the cookies, the brand also has a devoted following among Jews because its Swiss fudge cookies are made without milk or butter, making them an acceptable dessert for those who follow Jewish dietary guidelines.

“Never before Brynwood’s ownership has the local and its membership been attacked in this way,” they contend in fliers.

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Stella DOro, in the Bronx, was started in 1932 as a family-owned business, but is now owned by an investment firm.Credit
Hiroko Masuike for The New York Times

“The financiers and speculators have brought the American economy to its knees,” they wrote. “The financiers at Brynwood Partners are trying to bring 135 workers to their knees, hiring scabs to do their work. The Stella D’Oro workers are taking a stand against the wrecking of our economy.”

The management at the factory did not respond to repeated requests for comment.

Hendrik J. Hartong Jr., who is listed as the head of Brynwood Partners on the company’s Web site, also did not respond to requests for a comment.

“They want us to put our money into a 401(k),” said Mr. Gomez, 54, the shop steward. Having already lost $30,000 in his 401(k) because of the stock market decline, he said he would not have time to work to regain the losses.

“I have no choice,” he said. “I get old.”

Another striker, Anabel Garita, 26, said she usually worked on the packing table, grabbing cookies as they passed and packing them in boxes. She was making $18 an hour, but she said the company wanted to cut her wages.

“I work the night shift, so I can go to school,” she said, adding that the company’s new rules would make it impossible for her to study for her G.E.D.

The workers say they are determined to stay on strike until the dispute is resolved.

In the meantime, Mr. Gomez said, they will continue to stand outside the factory from 6 a.m. to 10 p.m., six days a week.

As Christmas Eve drew near, passing drivers honked and shouted encouragement. People stopped by and offered words of support and warm coffee.

“This place was like a home for many of these people,” Mr. Gomez said of the workers and their supporters. “But investors only care about their money. They don’t care about families.”

A version of this article appears in print on , on page A20 of the New York edition with the headline: No Sweets When Striking the Cookie Factory. Order Reprints|Today's Paper|Subscribe